Gilbert Yvel´s return
M-1 Look Back - The Return of Gilbert Yvel
Submitted by: Keith Mills
Posted On 12/14/2003
Pride vet Gilbert Yvel is making his comeback after recovering from separate neck, knee, and achilles injuries. The Team Golden Glory fighter had been absent from the scene since June of 2002 when he lost a decision to Jeremy Horn in Pride 21 but has been according to Golden Glory sources training with John Lewis in the US doing a lot of groundwork and BJJ. In M-1 “Russia vs. the World 7” he made his return by picking up a draw against Daniel Tabeira of Spain in a single 10-minute round.
Most fans are mostly familiar with Yvel’s Pride fights, which haven’t gone too well. After losing a decision to Vitor Belfort in Pride 9 Gilbert came back to pull off a one-kick KO over Gary Goodridge in Pride 10. A no-contest in Pride 11 was followed by four straight losses in Pride against Fujita, Vovchanchyn, Frye, and Horn. What many fans may not realize is in-between these Pride fights he picked up three wins in 2Hot2Handle and M-1 and currently holds a verifiable career record of 25-9-1.
Normally when a fighter is out for so long or recovers from such major injuries they are given a no-name opponent for a couple fights to test the waters. Tabeira can’t be said to be a “no-name” or an easy opponent, having defeated Sergei Kaznovski in “Russia vs. the World 6” by relentlessly moving forward and taking a lot of punishment in his quest to take down Kaznovski, finally picking up a judges’ decision. Tabeira can take a lot of damage as well as dish it out standing but prefers the ground game, seemingly the perfect test for Yvel in his return to not only answer the questions of if he was totally healed but if he improved since his Pride days.
Unfortunately it is difficult to really tell how much Yvel improved on the ground due to the amount of referee standups in this fight. Tabeira would close to boxing range to avoid the kind of kicks that knocked out Goodridge while trying to stay out of the clinch where Yvel’s knees are deadly. Not surprisingly Yvel seemed to get the better of the standup although his main weapons of kicks and knees were countered. Tabeira kept trading powerful bombs then ducking under Yvel’s punces and would take Yvel down but every time he did the ref shortly stood them back up, even once when Yvel hit full mount. After four of these standups and they hit the ground again Tabeira got side control and fired off an illegal elbow to the jaw of Yvel resulting in a foul and time-out. Once they restarted the fighters quickly returned to the ground again, this time with Yvel coming alive and pummeling Tabeira before switching to a submission attempt until time ran out. From what little time the fighters spent on the ground it looked like Yvel’s ground defense has improved but is difficult to judge by how much. Overall a good return for Yvel although the amount of standups took away any feeling of resolution and didn’t answer the crucial questions of Yvel’s progress.
Now it looks like Yvel’s next fight will be March 28th in 2Hot2Handle, rumored to be against Tre Telligman or Velentin Overeem.
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